Entertainment

HOW TO: Win the Search Rank Race for Your Name

Ten years ago, we identified ourselves online with handles, and anonymity ruled the web. It was not unusual to correspond with "Jetsfan77" or "HikingGirl_06." The idea of having all your information attached to your name — your real name — seemed crazy. As we've moved away from handles, using our legal monikers has ushered in an era of more authenticity and accountability on the web.

And as distinguishing your identity across the web becomes increasingly important, it has also become increasingly difficult. With almost 30% of the world's 6.7 billion person population using the Internet today, there are bound to be many of them who share the same name.

There are 149 other “Sarah Kesslers” on Facebook. Twenty-six of us have Twitter accounts, 93 of us use MySpace, and 78 of us are Linkedin. Staking out digital territory across the web, needless to say, has been difficult. And my name isn't even among the most common.

In a world where almost 80% of hiring managers Google job candidates, it’s important to make sure that the people looking you up find you and not someone else with your namesake.

This importance became clear to Pete Kistler when he figured out that he was being turned down for jobs because he shared a name and age bracket with an ex-convict. To help others like him, he started Brand-Yourself, a personal online reputation management service. We caught up with the site's Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Ambron for his advice on staking out an online identity when there's competition for your name.

1. Register Available Domain Names

Domain names are important. So important, in fact, that a largely abandoned WordPress blog that uses my name in the title is currently the first search result for my name.

Ambron says that claiming your domain name is the first and most important thing that you can do to make yourself more visible in a Google search. Claim your name on whatever domains are available. Even if you don’t plan to use yourname.co, .info, .net or .mobi, you’ll be preventing other people who share your name from using those domains to compete with you for search result status.

“Google loves the domain name,” Ambron says. “It’s a powerful indication that site is going to be about you.”

2. Mention Yourself on Your Website

It might feel weird to talk about yourself in the third person, but labeling your website’s tabs with your name can give you an advantage in search results.

“This is called keyword density,” Ambron says. “When Google spiders index a site, they look to see how often certain words are used to determine what the site should rank. If your content never mentions your name, how will spiders know it's about you?”

Even though you might be thinking, “of course it’s [your name]’s bio. Who else’s bio would be on my site?” it’s important to use your full name so that search engines recognize that the site is about you when someone searches for your name.

3. Link to All of Your Content

“[Google] considers each link to your site a vote for the site,” Ambron says. “Google has gotten pretty smart, so where those links come from is very important. The more reputable links are better votes. A vote from CNN is better than some site you made that you just linked to yourself.”

Fortunately, as an individual, there are an abundance of opportunities for you to create links to your site from reputable sources in the form of profiles. A vote from your friend’s website might not count for a lot, but a vote from Facebook will be counted as much more reputable.

Sign up for as many directories and social sites as possible, and make sure to link them all together. One tip that Brand-Yourself advocates is to locate profiles where your name is still available. You can also locate and reserve your name across the web using one of these websites.

“Even if you don’t plan on using all those social sites, and there are plenty of them, it’s good to grab them up,” Ambron says. “It's good that you’re keeping someone else from using them with your name and contributing to their results.”

4. Create Content and Get Social

“Google loves updated content,” Ambron says. “And the fastest way for an individual to have updated content is to have a social profile that they use.”

One easy way to make sure your blog is always updated, for instance, is to integrate your Twitter account’s RSS feed. Every time you tweet, you’ll update your blog and improve its prominence in search results.

“If you have a blog post that you put on your site, Facebook and Twitter, and five people Like it and share it,” Ambron says, “that’s five credible links from Facebook and from Twitter to your site.“

Do you have a digital doppelganger who has caused confusion in your life? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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